Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-18
Moral Effect of Free Masonry Ode
Fellowship, Knights of Labor
and Other Societies.
Two Ears and One Tongue Physiology
calIy Suggestive that we Ought 10
Hear More than we Tell.
II Depends Entirely on the Object OIL secre
Associations as to Whether they are
Right or Wrong.
a,oc,al tn the Gazette.

BROOKLYN N L q pm IL LIZ NV .
T. De Witt Talmage, DID,, announced to
his congregation to-day that as the Brook
Ivn Tabernacle has been uncomfortably
crowded for many years the trustees
have purchased the adjoining ground, on
which g great church, prayer and Sunday
school room will be built, which on Sab
baths can be opened into the main
auditorium, thus giving room for at least
q thousand more hearers at services. Six
thousand people are crowded into the
present building; 1851 Of these in pews,
and about 1900 seated in aisles and
standing. The Improvement will add
greatly TO this capacity.
The subject of DR.. TalmRge's sermon
today was, "What is the Moral Effect of
Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights
~ Labor, Greek Alphabet and Other So
cieties?" The text was from Proverbs,
wy. 9: "DiscOVer not a secret to an
other" DR.. Tamage said:
II appears that in SolOmon's time as in
all subsequent periods of the world, there
were peOple too much disposed to tell all
they knew 1t was blab, blab, blab;
nhysicians revealing the case of their
patients, lawyers exposing the private
affairs OF their clients, neighbOrs adver-
Using the faults OF the next door resi-
dent: pretended friends betraying conf
deDces One half Of the trouble Of every
community comes from the fact
that SO many people have not
capacity to keep their mouths shut.
When l hear something disparaging of
YOU my first duty is not to tell you. But
# I tell you what somebody has said
against you, and then 60 CuE and tell
everybody else what told you, and they
90 out aud tell others what | told them
that l told you, and we all 60 out, some
to hunt up the originator of the story and
others to hunt 1t down we shall get the
whole community talking about what you
did do and Whist you did not do, and
there will be as many scalpS taken as
though g band of ModOcs had swept upon
g helpless village. We have two ears but
only one tongue, physiological sug-
gestiOn that we ought to hear good deal
more than We tell. Let US Join a con-
spiracy that we will tell each other all the
good and nothing of the i'll, and then there
will not be such awful need of sermons
on SOlomCn's words: Discover not q
secret to another"
Solomon had a very large domestic
circle. In his earlier days he had very
confused notions about mOnOgamy and
polygamy, and MS multitudinOus assOci-
Stes in the matrimonial state kept him TOO
well Informed as to what was going on in
Jerusalem. They gathered up all the
privacIes of the city and poured them
into his ear, and his family became a
SOrOsis or female debating society of
seven hundred, discussing day after day
all the difficulties between husbands and
wives, between employers and employees,
between rulers and subjects, until Solo
mon, in my text, deplOres voIubility about
affairs that d. not belong TO rs and extols
the virtue of seCretiveness.
By the power of a secret divulged
families, churches, neighborh9ods, ma
tons fly apart. By the power of a secret
kept great charities, socialties, refOrma-
tory movements and Christian enterprises
may be advanced. Men are gregariOus
cattle in herds, fish in
schools, birds in focks, men
IN social circles. You may by the dis
charge of a gun scatter flock of quails,
or by the plunge of the anchor send apart
the denizens of the sea, but they will
you, by some new power, could break the
associations in which men now stand
they would again adhere. God meant it
so. He has gathered all the flowers and
shrubs into associations. You may plant
one fOrgeL-me-not or heart ease alone,
away of on the hillside, but il will soon
hU1t up some other forget-me-not or
heart s-ease. Plants love company. You
will find them talking to each other in the
dew. A galaxy Of stars is only g mutual
life insurance company. You sometimes
see 8 man with no OutbranChings of sym
pathy. His nature is cold and hard like a
ships mast iCe-glaZed, which the most
agile sailor COulJ never climb. Others
have 1000 roots and 1000 branches. In
Vulnerable tendriIs climb their hearts
and blossom sll the way up, and the fowls
of heaven sing in the branches. In con-
sequence of this tendency we find men
coming together IN tribes, in COmmuni-
ties, in churches, in societies. Some
gather together to cultivate the arts, some
to plan for the welfare of the state, some
to discuss religious themes, some to
kindle their mirth, some 10 advance their
crafts. So every active community is di
Vided into associations of artists, OF mer-
chants, of bOokbindeTs, of carpenters, of
masons, of plasterers, of shipwrights, of
plumbers. Do you cry out against it?
Then you cry out against tendency di-
yinely implanted. Your TRADES would
accomplish no more than if you should
preach to busy ant-hiu or beehive 8
long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the Oft-disCussed question
whether associations that do their work
with closed doors and admit their mem
bers by passwords, and greet each
other with Il secret grip are right or
wrong. I answer that it depends entirely
on the nature OF the object for which they
meet. Is it to pass the hours in revelry,
wasssll, blasphemy and obscene talk, or
TO plot trouble TO the state, or to de-
bauGh the innocent, then | say with an
emphasis that no man can mistake, no!
But Is the object the defense of the
rights Of any class against oppression,
the Improvement of the mind, the enlarge
ment of the heart, the advancement Of
art, the defense of the government, the
extirpation of crime or the kindling of q
pure-hearted sociality,- then l say with
lust as much emphasis, yes!
There is no ueed that we who plan for
the conquest of right over wrong should
puhIish tO all the world Our intentions